Bideford

Christmas Eve at the Front

An interesting letter has just been received by Mrs Packer, of Broadclyst, from her husband, Corpl Packer of A Company, 1st Battalion Devonshire Regiment, who is serving with the Expeditionary Force in Northern France. In the course of a letter he describes a remarkable incident which occurred on Christmas Eve between the British and German trenches.

Post Office project at North Bank - 1960

Work began this week at North Bank, Bideford, on two Post Office projects, but it will be five years before workmen finally leave the site. Here are to be built the vehicle servicing department - to displace that at the rear of the former Post Office building in High Street - and the automatic telephone exchange. But whereas it is anticipated that the new workshops will be in operation by about September of next year, it will be 1965 before local telephone subscribers are able to dial the numbers they require.

A Post Office spokesman told the Gazette that because of the restriction on capital expenditure the various building projects throughout the country have to be graded in order of priority and that Bideford is not considered one of the most urgent. It was for that reason the scheme would take some time to complete. But as far as the telephone exchange is concerned a tremendous amount of work has to be done. Completion of the actual building - in 1962-63 - will comprise a comparatively small part of the scheme. Installation of the equipment, and feeding in of cables carrying the lines of more than 3,000 subscribers in the Bideford and Northam areas who will be served by the new exchange, is a big undertaking. Then every subscriber will have to be supplied with a new instrument.

Not all the North Bank land purchased for the development will be needed. The customary practice in such cases was being followed, said the spokesman. The surplus land had been offered to Bideford Town Council, but they had decided that they did not want it. The next step would be to ascertain if any other Government department needed it. Assuming that none did, the land would be put on the market.

Susan to meet Princess Margaret

Susan (9) to meet Princess Margaret

Happiest girl in North Devon on Saturday was nine year old Susan Petherick, of Northam Road, Garage, Bideford, for she won the right to meet Princess Margaret in London next month.

She will present to the Princess, on behalf of the North Devon auxiliary of the London Missionary Society, a purse of money towards the Society's new missionary ship, the John Williams 7th, completed at a cost of £100,000. The first boat was built by John Williams, a pioneer missionary, who operated it in the South Seas, and who was martyred. Down the years work has continued and it is now a tradition that the children of the Congregational Churches throughout England and Wales should be responsible for building and maintaining the ships. It is the money that they have collected that will be presented to Princess Margaret.

Who should represent North Devon was decided at a rally at Lavington Church, Bideford, on Saturday, when a number of children entered a written competition. It resulted in a tie between Janet Minifie (aged 14), of Ilfracombe, and Susan. Further written and oral tests to eliminate one of their number having failed, it was decided that Susan should present the purse and that Janet should accompany her as escort.

Promise is kept - after 18 years

A promise made to a Bideford family has been kept - more than 17 years after. When, following VE Day, Mr Frank Willanneuva, a member of the United States Forces, returned to his home country, he promised Mrs M J Durant and her daughters Phyllis and Margaret, at whose home, 'Darracott', Abbotsham Road, he had been billeted for nearly a year, that he would 'write soon'. But then Mr Willanneuva, who hailed from Mexico, could write little English. Now, writing from 700 South Street, Tulare, California, he has invited Miss Phyllis Durant to visit him. Said Miss Durant, 'Naturally I am unable to make the trip but I was very pleased to hear from him'. By a strange coincidence, less than a month before the family received Mr Willanneuva's letter they received a letter of gratitude from Mr Harold Crawford, of Brigg, Lincolnshire. He thanked Mrs Durant for having looked after his wife for three years at the end of the war when he was a casualty and in Bideford Hospital. 'It was certainly strange that after so long these two men should have been thinking of us at the same time.' said Mrs Durant.